The Impact of J Dilla

This is the legacy of one James Dewitt Yancey also known as the one and only J Dilla. Born Feb. 7th 1974 and passing Feb. 10th 2006, J Dilla has been regarded as one the best Hip Hop producers of all time.

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J Dilla spoke about how his affiliation with the collective of artist came about. “Back in about 93’ Slum Village did the Fantastic Vol.1 on cassette, somehow it got everywhere, this little tape got bootleg everywhere, and somehow got in the hands of Ahmir, you know Questlove from the Roots. It was from him, he let people hear it, D’Angelo, Common. I was already working with Tip, but I never hook up with these people, it was like I saw them, it was like we went to the same studio.” He continues “ Battery Studio in New York, it will be A Tribe Called Quest in studio a, Diamond D in studio d, Common in studio c, no telling who coming through, Keith Murray, so many people coming through.. Pharcyde, that’s how I met Pharcyde.”

I remember my friend bumping that Pharcyde song in his new Audi A8. It was called “keep running away,” I didn’t like the song, but I always remember how he play the song all day, constantly on repeat, to the point, I finally found the good he found in the song. Thus is the impact of a James Dewitt Yancey track, and so his influence on music and people.

His demise was caused by kidney failure, but complicated by a long battle with Lupus. In a Los Angeles hospital, J Dilla accomplished one last feat before passing, celebrating his 32nd birthday by releasing his last album, an instrumental album called “Donuts” On February 7th 2006, the album dropped, and three days later made his homecoming. Celebrated by many, the day February 10th has been dubbed affectionately “Dilla day.” It was on this day that I was alerted by a friend about the significance of J Dilla legacy. He said “you know you should write an article about J Dilla man!” It just amazing how big of impact this guy has made on people lives, twitter, facebook, everybody’s putting up Dilla tribute’s and clips. This dude was huge man! I mean huge!!”

Truer Words Could Not Have Been Spoken.

This Article First Appeared in The Black Truth News: Vol.1 Issue 5 April 2010

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